Chest
Volume 88, Issue 2, August 1985, Pages 239-243
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Clinical Investigations
Acute Effects of Oxygen Treatment Upon Information Processing In Hypoxemic COPD Patients

https://doi.org/10.1378/chest.88.2.239Get rights and content

The present study investigated the effects of oxygen therapy upon human information processing for hypoxemic COPD patients. Each of ten patients was admitted to a general clinical research center for a two-day period. In a randomly counter-balanced factorial design, patients breathed either room air or enriched oxygen for either six hours or 20 minutes prior to testing. The tests evaluated speed of information processing, ability to detect correct sequence of tones, and serial memory. In addition, patients were evaluated on critical flicker fusion and story recall. The results suggested that acute oxygen therapy does not reverse information processing deficits observed in hypoxemic COPD patients.

Section snippets

Subjects

Ten hypoxemic COPD patients were recruited for participation in the study. Each patient had been clinically diagnosed with COPD by standard American Thoracic Society criteria. They ranged in age from 48 to 79 years (M = 66.30; SD = 8.33). Criteria for acceptance into the study included a resting room air PaO2 level of less than 55 mm Hg. All patients had a current prescription for oxygen therapy.

Setting

Each patient was admitted to the General Clinical Research Center at the Scripps Clinic and Research

Results

A 2 × 2 within-subject analysis of variance was performed to analyze changes in oxygen saturation (SaO2). The two factors in the design were gas mixture (oxygen, room air), and duration (six hours, 20 minutes). There was a significant main effect for gas mixture (F 1/9 = 14.05, p<0.005). Subjects had higher SaO2 levels while breathing oxygen than while breathing room air. Thus, the manipulation for gas mixture was effective in changing oxygen saturation levels. The duration effect and the

Discussion

Previous studies on the effects of hypoxemia upon human information processing have produced inconsistent results. Evidence is accumulating to suggest that long-term hypoxemia is associated with impaired intellectual functioning.1, 2 Although several studies suggested that oxygen treatment may help alleviate this problem,3, 4, 10 continuing efforts have produced inconsistent results.7

An important finding in the current investigation is that patients experienced significantly higher SaO2 levels

Conclusions

Cerebral changes in hypoxemic COPD have emerged as a complex puzzle. Considerable evidence suggests that hypoxemic COPD may result in CNS effects that are reflected in memory and abstraction deficits. Long-term oxygen therapy may retard these effects or may produce mild improvements. The acute effects of oxygen therapy are less clearly established. Although some evidence from other (non-COPD) patients with CNS problems indicates benefits, our data corroborate other reports failing to

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Supported by Grant K04 HI 00809 (R.M.K.) and by the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation NIH GCRC Award RR 00833

Manuscript received August 2; revision accepted January 3.

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